Written by: Stefania aka CityMama
http://citymama.typepad.com/
In my household, I'm the one who does most of the grocery shopping and all of the cooking. I work from home, so technically I have more free time to shop and cook, although my husband helps with the shopping when he can. As someone who was raised by a mother who made everything from scratch, shunned processed foods, and kept a garden, my core beliefs about food are that it should be good and good for you. I prefer my salad dressings and spaghetti sauces to store-bought and it hardly takes me any time to prepare them. My husband, on the other hand, is the one who manages the budget. His ideas of food mainly relate to how many frozen burritos can one get for $6. His favorite phrase is "buy one, get one free." As you can see, we have very divergent ideas about how to feed our family.
He's right, we need to watch our bottom line, but I want to be right, too. I want to be sure that I am feeding my family wholesome and tasty foods. Would we ever see eye-to-eye on the issue of feeding our family? That's where meal planning comes in.
I started meal planning seriously after the birth of our second child so I wouldn't—amidst all the nursing, diaper changes, and shuttling back and forth to preschool—forget to feed my family. Or, so I'd at least remember to go grocery shopping for actual food and not just diapers and coffee. But I soon discovered that even though meal planning was helping me to organize the three meals per day that I was preparing, it also helped us stick to our budget. Yes, it's nice to always have an answer to the question, "What's for dinner?", but making our wallets happy was the real benefit. I could still shop for the produce I wanted, but I only bought exactly what we needed. A container of plain yogurt was used for a cool, cucumber tzatziki one night and embellished with honey, figs, and granola for breakfast the next day. The five apples and 10 apricots were eaten up in a week. The roast chicken was dinner, then became sandwiches, and eventually, the carcass made into soup. The bag of mesclun lettuce was made into the salads. The milk went into cauliflower soup one night and mashed parsnips the next. Very little was thrown away, and nothing was left to spoil, forgotten in the back of fridge. Because I had planned every meal and knew exactly which ingredients I needed to prepare them, that meant that I was shopping wisely—healthfully, deliciously, and wisely. My husband could definitely support that. Crisis averted.
Red Herring
I agree, meal planning saves a ton of time and money. I can easily see how this would save a marriage as finances are the number one cause of divorce these days. I used to buy groceries for an entire month until I met and married my husband. I was constantly throwing out spoiled food. Now I plan my meals according to what we want to eat for the week. For example, chicken is pre-cooked, shredded, and stored in the freezer. If chicken enchiladas are on the menu, I take the chicken out of the freezer and put it into the fridge to thaw. I can also use any leftover shredded chicken for a chicken salad or soup for a different meal!
1There is rarely any left overs when I cook but I do shop by the week and have a meal plan by the week. It isn't necessarily always healthy but they are eating.
I to grew up with a garden and fresh vegetables & fruits but with both my husband & I working it isn't feasible for either of us. Today when you go shopping the junk food is about all you can afford because the healthy foods are way to expensive.
2Meal planning also helps avoid the stopping for take-out because the idea of going home and rummaging through cabinets to decide what to make is too daunting. I've really enjoyed the Menu Mailer service from savingdinner.com which comes not only with dinner recipes and serving suggestions but also itemized shopping lists. Such a time-saver for us multi-taskers
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